(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This presentation will discuss the ways environmental phenomena shape spatial dynamics in historic cities, and also how they join ancient layers of building and ground with the contemporary rhythms of public space. Specifically, I will discuss two methods for microclimatic survey I have developed to study the shape of spaces that are defined by dynamic volumes of shade. In the first method, hand-held digital weather instruments are used to survey shifts in temperature, and in the second, aerial time lapse photography is used to document moving shade and shifting crowd patterns in urban spaces. The Pantheon in Rome and Piazza il Campo in Siena serve as a case study sites, and I will discuss the application and coordination of the two methods, as well as the outcomes and what they tell us about how we inhabit climatic volumes of space. Rome and Siena are both cities where the capacity of shade to shape public life is highly visible. In these cities the shift in scale: from narrow medieval streets, to public squares, to imperial and ‘modern’ avenues, creates a pattern of space and light that influences the way we circulate and inhabit the city. The relative proportionality of historic buildings to public squares allows for the projection of shade into public space to be fully visible, and as such we are able to observe this influence first-hand. However, we often omit the dynamics of environmental phenomena in our architectural drawing conventions. It is more common to analyze the composition of cities from a plan-based representations, and in these drawings the void between buildings represents public life. But without including light, shade, and temperature in our representations of space, we are ignoring the most contemporary and evolving element of these historic spaces: the patterns of everyday life.